See what I mean? (Nasrudin on Risk No. 1)
Written by Will McGill on December 22nd, 2009(This is the first post containing a Nasrudin tale related to risk…)
Nasrudin was throwing handfulls of crumbs around his house.
‘What are you doing?’ someone asked him.
‘Keeping the tigers away.’
‘But there are no tigers in these parts.’
‘That’s right. Effective, isn’t it?’ (Shah 4)
From a risk management point of view, Nasrudin asserts that because of his actions (i.e., throwing handfulls of crumbs around his house), all risks associated with the presence of tigers has been mitigated. That is, Nasrudin believes that his actions reduced the probability of tiger presence to zero, thus bringing risk to zero. And because no tigers have appeared, Nasrudin suggests that his strategy is “effective.”
Anyone have a good modern analogy to this sillyness?
References
Shah, I. (1983). The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin.
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How about TSA’s continued insistence on relieving air travelers of utterly harmless items by the bushel?